Cooke an assistant coach with Nebraska-Kearney

Chad Cooke, a Douglas High and Dana College graduate, recently was hired as the assistant baseball coach at Nebraska-Kearney, a Division II school.

Cooke is the first base coach and also coaches defense for Nebraska-Kearney. Cooke was most recently co-head coach at Woodbine High in Woodbine, Iowa. He has also been a graduate assistant at NAIA Dana in Nebraska and served an internship at Mississippi State.

Cooke, a second baseman, played at Feather River College where he helped the Golden Eagles to two region and conference titles and a Northern California Final Four appearance.

At Dana, Cooke was a two-time all-conference selection where he helped the Vikings to back-to-back conference titles and regional appearances in 2003 and 2004. Cooke holds Dana school records for most times hit by a pitch in a game, season and career. Cooke hit .380 with 25 RBI, seven doubles and three home runs in 2004.

"Chad is a great young man and good coach," Nebraska-Kearney coach Damon Day said. "He played for me at Dana and we had a tremendous amount of success together and I expect that to continue here."

Nebraska-Kearney is off to a 6-0 start and will begin conference play on March 10 against Mesa State in Grand Junction, Colo. Cooke will earn his master's from Nebraska-Kearney in 2007.